FSRG Publication Structural Changes in Food Retailing: Six Country Case Studies edited by Kyle W. Stiegert and Dong Hwan Kim FSRG Publication, November 2009 FSRG Publication Structural Changes in Food Retailing: Six Country Case Studies edited by Kyle W. Stiegert Dong Hwan Kim November 2009 Kyle Stiegert
[email protected] The authors thank Kate Hook for her editorial assistance. Any mistakes are those of the authors. Comments are encouraged. Food System Research Group Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics University of Wisconsin-Madison http://www.aae.wisc.edu/fsrg/ All views, interpretations, recommendations, and conclusions expressed in this document are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the supporting or cooperating organizations. Copyright © by the authors. All rights reserved. Readers may make verbatim copies of this document for noncommercial purposes by any means, provided that this copyright notice appears on all such copies. ii Chapter 7: Food Retailing in the United States: History, Trends, Perspectives Kyle W. Stiegert and Vardges Hovhannisyan 1. INTRODUCTION: FOOD RETAILING: 1850-1990 Before the introduction of supermarkets, fast food outlets, supercenters, and hypermarts, various other food retailing formats operated successfully in the US. During the latter half of the 19th century, the chain store began its rise to dominance as grocery retailing format. The chain grocery store began in 1859 when George Huntington Hartford and George Gilman founded The Great American Tea Company, which later came to be named The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company (Adelman, 1959). The typical chain store was 45 to 55 square meters, containing a relatively limited assortment of goods.